I never cease to be amazed and uplifted by the people I meet in the world of direct payments who are committed to getting them right and working well. The impact and success of their dedicated work is undeniable, yet too often it can feel like swimming against the tide, and at times, quite isolating.
For all of us dedicated to trying to improve things and influence others, November is a month of hope and positive activity that we can all draw strength from. If you ever feel a bit alone in pursuing this locally, now is the time to get connected and draw on the collective experience and learning of some fantastic people.
It’s important we highlight the range of people and organisations that are being earnest in connecting direct payments to principles of choice and control. Shining a light on success, promising practice, and the graft of many focused on making things better in co-production and partnership.
So, what can you expect in November and beyond?
Drawing on direct payments, 4 November at 12.30 pm
West Midlands Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) are hosting a webinar sharing lived experience and promising practice across the region. Register by emailing shelley.madley@wm-adass.org.uk
Sharing individual employer and personal assistant best practice with social workers, 5 November at 1.30 pm
Hosted by Skills for Care, this webinar will share good practice and identify more effective ways to enable self-directed support for people employing PAs. Register here
Personal assistant summit, 14 November, Sheffield
Sheffield Council and Yorkshire and the Humber ADASS are hosting this summit to follow up on last year’s event, encouraging Local Authorities to celebrate and build the capacity of this important workforce. Register here
Better direct payments, 20 November, Exeter
The South West Direct Payments Network, supported by Devon County Council, are hosting an event to support those wanting to make progress and improvements, using Think Local Act Personal products as a focus. Register here
Sharing individual employer and personal assistant best practice with commissioners, 26 November at 1.30 pm
Skills for Care is hosting a webinar for commissioners to share good practice and to support increased options for self-directed support for people who employ PAs. Register here
Making direct payments a true vehicle for self-directed support, 28 November at 9.30 am, Liverpool (NCASC)
Partners in Care and Health, a partnership between the Local Government Association (LGA) and ADASS are hosting a workshop at the National Children and Adult Services Conference (NCASC) to showcase the co-productive improvement work of Royal Borough of Greenwich Council and residents, facilitated by TLAP and Social Care Future as part of their ‘fixing the plumbing and wiring work’. Come along if you’re going to NCASC.
A month of connection and focus should be celebrated, but it shouldn’t distract us from the fact that many people’s experience of direct payments continues to fall significantly short of the expectation laid out in law by the Care Act. People have a right to choice, control, and to self-direct their care and support via a direct payment, but this is a right too often denied or not fully realised.
To make real improvements, we need real action as well as encouraging words.
So, what else is happening?
We hosted a Direct Payment Summit along with Partners in Care and Health and ADASS this time last year. We’ll be sharing a summary of what we learnt soon.
In the meantime, here are some things people at the summit thought would help us all to make progress, which we are taking forward working with people who use a direct payment and relevant organisations.
We need a better, up-to-date view of what’s going on. We hear from people all the time what issues they are encountering, but the rigour of an academic approach to gathering and analysing evidence and discerning what this tells us is what’s needed. if we are to secure the continued and renewed support of local leaders and politicians from across parties.
Gathering this up-to-date view of what’s going on was one of the things people said was needed. Research partnerships like Impact and the Curiosity Partnership have projects in progress that will contribute to building the evidence, so watch out for another blog from us on research soon.
Working with the South West Direct Payment Network, we have identified the need to support social workers and other staff undertaking assessments with bite-sized online resources to help them to confidently encourage people to take up this option. TLAP are very pleased to be supporting them to make this a reality. Watch out for these on the Choice and Control Hub on our website later this year.
We’ve been convening a group of people who take and manage a direct payment and organisations that support them, to work with Skills for Care to co-produce a draft personal assistant role for the forthcoming phase of the Care Workforce Pathway.
The National Direct Payment Forum and Independent Living Group continue to build on the work they published regarding the Employment Status of Personal Assistants. We at TLAP are happy to be supporting them to convene those who regulate in this complicated space. Exploring cases presented by some Councils, we are aiming to publish practical guidance next year that will hopefully add clarity for direct payment support workers who are increasingly being asked for guidance and are not always able to give this clearly.
We continue to work directly with specific Councils we know have delivered improvements in a positive spirit, following the advice of ADASS in their Time To Act roadmap. Using TLAP products and recommendations to guide their improvement work. We will publish these case studies, including practical tools and examples of documentation and templates that others can use in their own improvement projects.
We’ve been working with Social Care Future who will soon be sharing the outcomes of the ‘fixing the plumbing and wiring’ work in seven local sites, three of which are focused on direct payments. Valuable learning about how to bring people and workers together using Working Together for Change as a co-productive methodology to make improvements.
We think it’s time for a renewed and shared commitment to self-directed support across health and social care, starting with direct payments. As we’ve outlined here, people are already re-galvanizing their efforts to make progress with this. Places need to rethink how they work and interact with people to achieve this.
A good number have started, some are well along this path, and we hope to gather evidence of how successful they have been.
If you’ve not started yet, November would be a good time to get connected and work out what you need to do to make the changes so many people want to see, so they can truly feel in control of their care and support.
Do it in earnest. It’s important.
